Victim’s kids alert police to fatal Mo. shooting

JENNINGS, Mo. (AP) — A suburban St. Louis woman was found dead in her home after her young children ran to a police station to report a shooting, police said Monday.

The suspect, 40-year-old Terrance Duff of University City, is the ex-boyfriend of the victim, Antoinetta Davis, 32. St. Louis County police spokesman Randy Vaughn said Duff also is the father of some of the six children who were in the house. It wasn’t clear if any of the children saw the shooting.

Duff is jailed without bond on charges of first-degree murder, burglary and armed criminal action.

The shooting happened just before 2 a.m. Monday in Jennings. The children, ages 2 through 13, ran out of the home to a St. Louis County police station a short distance away and told officers their mother had been shot. Police found Davis dead of a gunshot wound.

Duff turned himself in around 5 a.m. Monday.

The St. Louis County adult abuse office told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Davis had not sought any restraining orders, at least in the past six months.

The city of Jennings operated its own police department until March 2012, when the department was disbanded and St. Louis County took over. The former Jennings Police Station is now used by St. Louis County as a substation. The building is just steps away from the home where the shooting occurred.